Maybe it's just because it's Lent or perhaps I'm getting morose as I age, but I've been thinking about last words. What do you say at the end ... of a friendship? of a marriage? of a life?
We lost a young woman in our congregation in January. She took her own life. Her last words were in a text message ... sent to me. She promised me that if she was going to take her life, she would contact me. She did so in a way that made sure I wouldn't be able to intervene. She apologized for doing what she was about to do.
Last words have the power to bless or to break and we never know when those last words will come ... and whether they will be the words of another to us or our own to another.
